In large riveting jobs, such as aircraft manufacturing, where hundreds or thousands of rivets must be applied to a given surface, there is a great cost savings in making the riveting process as efficient as possible. Rivet tape was developed in order to hold rivets in place during these large riveting jobs, and thus allow a riveter to quickly perform hundreds upon hundreds of hand rivets.
Example rivet tapes presently used are 3M-695 (polyethylene) or 3M-685 (polyester) rivet tapes. These rivet tapes are polyethylene film tape with adhesive rubber or acrylic adhesive strips along the edges.
These rivet tapes do an adequate job of holding the rivets in place. However, tape particles from these rivet tapes frequently get caught under heads of the rivets. The tape particles that get caught are hard to see and are only visible after the aircraft has been painted. Painted over tape particles require sanding to ensure integrity of the aircraft skin. Repairing these defects can add great cost to aircraft production and maintenance.
Therefore, there is an unmet need to avoid paint defect problems that result from painted-over, entrapped rivet tape.